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Carl Sandburg, whose ramb
ling frame dwelling in the North
Carolina hills is being convert
ed into a national shrine, was
a man we would have enjoyed
knowing personally.
Although he wrote things
more familiar to most of us,
these lines that he called “Ac
complished Facts" are indica
tive of what was in his heart,
expecially the closing words.
“Every year," observed
Sandburg, “Emily Dickinson
sent one friend the first arbu
tus bud in the garden...In a
last will and testament Andrew
Jackson remembered a friend
with the gift of George Washing
ton's pocket spy-glass.
“Napoleon, too, in a last tes
tament, mentioned a silver
watch taken from the bedroom
of Frederick the Great, and
passed along this trophy to a
particular friend..-O. Henry
took a blood carnation from his
coat lapel and handed it to a
country girl starting work in a
bean bazar, and scribbled
“Peach blossoms may or may
not stay pink in city dust.”
“So it goes. Some things we
buy, some not. Tom Jefferson
was proud of his radishes, and
Abe Lincoln blacked his own
boots, and Bismark calledBer-
lin a wilderness of brick and
newspapers .... So it goes.
There are accomplished facts.
Ride, ride, ride on in the great
new blimps — cross unheard-
of oceans, circle the planet.
“When you come back we may
sit by five hollyhocks. We mlgtit
listen to boys fighting for mar
bles. The grasshopper will look
good to us.. .So it goes."
* * * If * *
H. C. Waldrop, whose whim
sical nature is refreshing in a
world engulfed by deadly
serious matters, has at times
placed humorous ads in the
paper. Perhaps the best re
membered is the explanation he
published when his property was
advertised for taxes, alongwith
the property »f a lot of other
New Bernians. “I had the
money," he assured readers,**!
just wanted my friends to know
1 owned something."
Also hard to forget is the ad
he ran offering a piece of low-
lying land across the river for
sale. He could hardly have been
franker when he Informed pro
spective purchasers that as a
fringe benefit they would get two
bushels of fish if they bou^t
the property at high tide.
Waldrop is wiser than the
average, mortal, having learn
ed that there's little to be gain
ed from plain and fancy hating.
Once he hated somebody for a
month, and found the experience
so painful that he sent the party
a bill for it. “I've hated you
for 30 days," Waldrop wrote on
the statement, “and if you don't
pay this bill I'm going to stop
hating you."
Last week, when we men
tioned Chick Nutella and Tull
Register as two New Bernians
who manage to get a whale of a
lot of work done while talking
in(Tssantly, we could very well
have Included Phil Fecher, the
accountant.
Phil, like Natella and Regis
ter, loves his profession, and
again like Chick and Tull has
what appears to be an inexhaus
tible supply of enthusiasm. What
(Continued on page 8)
PUlLlfHID WIIKLV
IN THI MART OR
■AVriRN NORTH
59^°°.?-St.
ary
’ 28860
VOLUME 11
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1968
NUMBER 20
JUST LIKE MIAMI—Otto Simmons, III, of Route 3,
New Bern, comes up with an imitation of mike-
clutching commentators covering this week’s Republi
can National Convention. The young man does have
a political background, dating back to an affection
ately remembered great grandmother who presided
over the polls at Rhems for years. Little Otto may
never become a newsman, or run for public ofhce,
but he already has the gift of gab that is an asset
in either undertaking. And someday, when he is
older, he is^ apt to read about, and hear stories about
^at is going down in history as a highly unusual
Presidential campaign. Even the honest to goodness
commentators can’t ligure this one out, Otto, and you
don t know how fortunate you are to be relaxed
and unconcerned while candidates scramble and vot
ers ponder what to do in November.—^Photo bv Eu
nice Wray.